A gas turbine engine generally includes, in serial flow order, a compressor section, a combustion section, a turbine section and an exhaust section. In operation, air enters an inlet of the compressor section where one or more axial or centrifugal compressors progressively compress the air until it reaches the combustion section. Fuel is mixed with the compressed air and burned within the combustion section to provide combustion gases. The combustion gases are routed from the combustion section through a hot gas path defined within the turbine section and then exhausted from the turbine section via the exhaust section.
In particular configurations, the turbine section includes, in serial flow order, a high pressure (HP) turbine and a low pressure (LP) turbine. The HP turbine and the LP turbine each include various rotatable turbine components such as turbine rotor blades, rotor disks and retainers, and various stationary turbine components such as stator vanes or nozzles, turbine shrouds, and engine frames. The rotatable and stationary turbine components at least partially define the hot gas path through the turbine section. As the combustion gases flow through the hot gas path, thermal energy is transferred from the combustion gases to the rotatable and stationary turbine components.
Such gas turbine engines are commonly employed in an aircraft. During operation of the aircraft, the engine environmental particulate and dust ingestion level is a key input to the analytics process, resulting in specific engine-by-engine action. Current dust/particulate level data is provided by ground-based and remote sensing systems. Such data has temporal and special variations as well as error, thereby making accurate assessment of engine conditions at takeoff and climb of the aircraft particularly difficult. On the other hand, if sensors are mounted on the engine, the electronics of such sensor systems are typically connected to the individual sensors via a plurality of cables and connectors. Thus, any motion or vibration of the cabling can produce more signal than the dust particles passing the sensor face, thereby resulting in a poor signal-to-noise ratio. Further, conventional engine-mounted systems can experience issues due to the triboelectric and piezoelectric effects of the cables and connectors.
Accordingly, the present disclosure is directed to an improved sensor system that addresses the aforementioned issues. More specifically, the present disclosure is directed to a sensor system that includes one or more improved electrostatic sensors having integrated electronics that more accurately detects dust particles and/or particulates within an engine, such as the gas turbine engine described above.